Astronauts may be exceptionally brave, intelligent, and accomplished, but they’re not superhuman: they still have to poop and pee when they leave Earth.

But as NASA was working to get the first humans into space in the early 60s, the agency didn’t focus much on how astronauts would empty their bladders and evacuate their bowels once they were up there.

Then in 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard – the first person in space – was forced to pee his pants on the launchpad. NASA quickly realised that the lack of planning presented a rather messy problem.

The agency needed a more serious bathroom-break plan, but solutions weren’t easy. After the Apollo missions ended in 1975, engineers described defecation and urination as the “bothersome aspects of space travel”.

A variety of makeshift solutions have been sent into space, including pee bags, roll on “cuffs”, diapers, strappy toilet seats, and US$19 million commodes. Contraptions for “going” while weightless have gotten a little more comfortable, and astronauts are now generally good at keeping waste from floating around.

But not every specimen got collected as planned. During the Apollo 10 mission in 1969, astronaut Tom Stafford suddenly said: “Get me a napkin quick. There’s a turd floating through the air.”

Was it astronaut John Young’s?

“I didn’t do it. It ain’t one of mine,” Young said, as recorded in a NASA transcript.

NASA also developed a “faecal containment system” for Apollo astronauts, since it was impossible to use bags outside the spacecraft. The system consisted of “a pair of undershorts with layers of absorbent material”.

Astronauts had to be toilet trained on Earth first, and some test runs even included a special under-the-seat camera so they could perfect their aim.

A space shuttle toilet simulator. (Dave Mosher)

“Alignment is important,” NASA’s Scott Weinstein, who taught space crews how to use the shuttle toilet, said in a video.

No paper was allowed in the toilet; that had to get thrown out separately.

Astronaut Mike Massimino said he used thigh restraints when he needed to sit on the space toilet, since sitting on it felt like riding a chopper bike. “I think of Peter Fonda in Easy Rider,” he said. “That’s the right position for me.”

Today, astronauts at the International Space Station go to the bathroom into a little plate-sized toilet hole, and a fan vacuum-sucks their excrement away.

The ISS toilet doesn’t have a perfect track record: part of it went out of order in May 2008.

Luckily, the solid-waste function still worked, and a Soyuz spacecraft that was attached to the station at the time also had a toilet (but with limited capacity). For urine, astronauts had to use bags.

Six months later, this US$19 million Russian-made toilet arrived at the ISS and became the station’s second commode.

(NASA)

This waste and hygiene compartment was delivered to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-126 mission. The Russian-built toilet system separately channels liquid and solid waste.

Last year, NASA launched a Space Poop Challenge to solve potential problems that could arise if astronauts are strapped into spacesuits for days at a time, like on missions to Mars. This device took top prize: US$15,000.

(Dr Thatcher Cardon)

The system is based around a little access port on the crotch, to which various bags or tubes can be attached to collect waste. It could even help astronauts change their underwear without taking off a spacesuit.

Thatcher Cardon worked nights and weekends on the prototypes with his wife and two teenage kids.

NASA isn’t quite ready to use the system in its spacesuits, but said it might use “some aspects” to develop better ways for astronauts to go in their suits in the future.

(Thatcher Cardon)

Cardon, who’s also an Air Force officer, a family physician, and a flight surgeon, says the same design concept could be used on other areas of the body for emergency surgeries.

“Put a port like that right over the navel, you could do abdominal surgery,” he said. “If astronauts are ever in a situation in space where trauma is involved, like asteroid mining, you might want to have those ports there.”

But it doesn’t seem like space restrooms are going glam any time soon.